Increasingly, vehicles are being configured with vehicular communications systems (VCSs) for communicating with one or more remote devices. For example, a VCS may communicate with an Internet server, or other network server, belonging to the manufacturer of the vehicle, the dealership for the vehicle, or a third party. The VCS and the remote device may communicate regarding a variety of issues, including the current position of the vehicle, the current operational state of the vehicle, and/or input that is provided by the user of the vehicle.
Many VCSs are configured to use a secure communication protocols that include the use of encryption to establish a secure connection between the VCS and the remote device. A variety of cryptographic schemes are used to establish these secure connections. In one example, the VCS and the remote device encrypt the messages that they send to one another using a symmetric encryption technique that is based on a shared secret.
While the use of a shared secret and a symmetric encryption technique is an effective way of establishing a secure connection between a VCS and a remote device, managing and protecting these shared secrets in a large scale environment is not practical. For example, messages that are encrypted with a shared secret and transmitted between the VCS and a remote device may be compromised if an unauthorized third party discovers the shared secret. The unauthorized third party can then use the shared secret to decrypt these messages or to encrypt its own messages and transmit them to the VCS as though it were a valid remote device.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a secure system for exchanging cryptographic information between a vehicle and a remote device. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.